I was recently completing a project for my Government class which was to create a bill, and my bill happened to be that of placing solar panels on top of businesses and houses. However, that's beside the point I am attempting to establish.
While finding information for my bill, I came across a very interesting project by a company called Solar Roadways. Essentially, the idea of Solar Roadways is to have all of the asphalt roads and parking lots in the USA replaced by durable and effective solar panels. People would be driving right on top of these solar panels. They may seem to be fragile, however, Solar Roadways claims that these roads are "translucent and high-strength, [they are] rough enough to provide great traction, yet still passes sunlight through to the solar collector cells. [They are] capable of handling today's heaviest loads under the worst of conditions. Weatherproof, it protects the electronics layer beneath it." One of the most interesting things is that all power stations in the United States could then be centralized. Currently, this means that if any one power station were to accidentally shut down, whole cities would lose power. However, due to the nature of solar energy, there would almost always be a flow of energy throughout the nation.
I was simply wondering what anyone else would think of this idea. I understand that it would be a gargantuan and expensive project for the United States to go through, but the power of the sun appears to be the most efficient with regards to the current circumstances. If we take the first step towards such a large project, I am certain that other countries would follow.
http://www.solarroadways.com/Introduction.htm
